Re: How Many F-4s were Lost Over Nam?



Harry Andreas wrote:
Don't kid yourself. There's a very detailed and time-consuming procedure for dealing with any skin issues on the F-22 and F-35, including different coatings and cure times for each.

Did you ever read about the RAM caulking between the panels on the B-2? The cure time on some of that was originally measured in several months, but they got it down to several weeks with some work.
This is reminiscent of the soft slippers the B-47 maintenance crew had to wear while walking around on its wings, because scratches could make the laminar airflow break down.
We can pull this off in a "silver bullet" type use of these aircraft, but God help us if we got into a situation where we had to fly them several times a day from a forward deployed base over a period of weeks, because the maintence requirments would be very high indeed. You can do that with a few dozen F-117s, but try it with a few hundred JSFs sometime.

Pat
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